inner guidance
Make Time To Listen To Your Heart
The heart is a wondrous place, the keeper of all your dreams, desires, hopes, and wishes. The heart is your protector and guide and the holder of your very own sacred flame.
No matter where we are in this life, or what role we have embraced as our life’s mission, we must always honor the calling of our heart. It’s built-in GPS will never lead us astray. The heart’s invitation is always one that guides us to our greatest purpose through the love of the Divine, love of life, love of self, love of others, and love of service.
There are times in life when the heart calls for us to make a sacrifice to bring to fruition a special dream or mission. But the fast-paced world we live in provides little time or space for the calmness necessary to hear the sometimes faint calling of the heart. This is why we must take time away from others to honor the commitment of the soul. It is as necessary as the medical student in the preparation for becoming a great surgeon.
For a tree to grow, a seed must first be planted, which requires retreating into the stillness of the forest or the garden, breaking the soil, and carefully nesting a seedling into the heart of mother earth. Similarly, to overcome the many distractions of our worlds, we must create the time and space to tune in to the song of our heart.
In doing so, we are honoring our heart, which requires consistent practice, beginning with baby steps. Over time, we can cultivate a spiritual practice of listening to the heart in much larger steps, and then bold, giant steps.
Mahatma Gandhi, the great activist, and humanitarian, once said that prayer, regardless of one’s religion or spiritual path, purifies the heart. Gandhi cultivated a deep stillness in his own life by making time to listen to his heart through the daily practice of meditation.
Trusting Your Inner Truth
Who in your life would you define as someone you could completely and totally trust? A parent, your spouse or partner, best friend, or a co-worker? Do you rely instead on the support of your angels, spirit guides or loved ones that have passed on? If you have someone you feel you can unconditionally rely on, be it in this life of the next, consider yourself blessed and fortunate.
However, if you struggle to trust anyone or anything, there is one source you can always trust if you allow yourself to be open to it. In fact, if you accomplish this you never have to rely on any external sources, both secular and spiritual.
This one true source is your inner guidance, your inner voice, your intuition, your soul wisdom. When we become more aware of our inner guidance we can discern for ourselves when there is a ‘twinge’ or a ‘gut feeling’ that we are being presented with a truth. If you are in alignment with what truly resonates within, it creates a strong bond with your higher self that ultimately places you in a position of complete self-trust.
To achieve this we need a strong personal belief system. Our belief or faith must be such that we are able to accept without question that we have an inherent ability to discern complete truth. We must have total faith in our own inner guidance and embrace our spiritual wisdom within.
If we do not believe and do not honor the inner wisdom that exists in all of us, we need to ask ourselves why not? What can we possibly find in the external world or in others that is more reliable than our own inner voice? Why might we trust what is outside ourselves more than what resides within.
Less Stress, More Meditation
We do our best to not be in a state of constant stress, toxic environments and unhealthy situations. We try so hard to keep our life in a state of contentment and happiness.
We intuitively know that if we keep our stress levels down, we sleep better and we think more clearly. Being in a state of zen is our original state.
When we are at peace, we are more able to hear that inner voice telling us what to do, and not do. It is what I call our inner GPS. We can hear it much more clearly when I we are centered and grounded, and not stressing.
I have found that only through meditation can I fully achieve this state of ‘less stress’ in my life. Of course, we can never eliminate stress completely, but meditation does empower me to achieve that state of contentment more easily.
After many years of practice, I can even achieve this within a few moments by simply focusing on my breath. But it is best when I take a good 30 minutes to go through my meditative steps. This includes breathwork and visualizing my body relaxing from my toes to top of my head.
During my destressing meditation I also take some time to send out love, light and peace to everyone that I know and love, including those who I don’t necessarily like very much. I also visualize the things I want to manifest in my life.
Nagging Thoughts Are Life Lessons
Sometimes I do it too – we all do it. We sit there and rehash stuff in our minds…over and over. We beat ourselves up and say things like, “If only I would have done this”, or “If only I had not said that”.
This kind of thinking really is a waste of time. It can be very draining to sit and analyze things gone by and worry about the past.
Of course, it is certainly better to move with some discernment and caution, while we are going about our day, so we don’t make unnecessary mistakes or fall victim to this kind of regretful thinking later. But it is also important to know that no one is perfect.
Some go about their days not caring what they do or say, and neither do they ever feel the need to do this kind of obsessive thinking about the past. But the majority of us sometimes wonder if we could have done things differently, or feel the need to hold ourselves accountable for every thought, word, action and deed – and that is why we tend to go over things, time and time again.
When you find yourself engaging in this kind of thinking, just stop doing it. Thoughts that just replay events over and over again in your mind is such a waste of energy. Instead consider for a minute how the relevant events are actually a wonderful learning experience.
Those thoughts are there, bugging you, as an opportunity for growth. Ask yourself what you will do or say differently next time, and then you can go about the rest of your day with inner peace and comfort, knowing you that you have gained valuable new knowledge from the experience, and now you can turn it into wisdom for the future. People who learn from themselves and their actions can truly smile, knowing that they can ‘cruise’ along this cosmic wave called life at a higher altitude and higher level of thinking.
The Universe Knows If You Just Need Your Hair Brushed
A spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer was waiting to board a plane. She had a spiritual book in her lap and was very intent upon what she was reading, until she felt summoned by Spirit to look up. When she did, she saw such a strange sight she had to try to keep from staring.
Humped over in a wheelchair she saw an elderly man. He was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones.
The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long and clean, but strangely out of place on an old man.
Beth looked down at her book as fast as she could, discomfort burning in her face, and tried to imagine what his story might be. She found herself wondering if she had just had a Howard Hughes sighting, but then she remembered that he is dead.
So, who was this man in the airport…an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on them somewhere, she wondered. There she sat; trying to concentrate on her book, to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from her. All the while, her heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling of concern for him. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, but suddenly Beth was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre looking man.
She had worked with Spirit long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. Beth had learned that when she began to feel what the universe feels, something contrary to her natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen…and it may be embarrassing. She immediately began to resist and started arguing with Spirit in her mind. “Oh, no, Spirit, please no,” she thought, but asked, “What are you calling me to do?”
Our Totems And Spirit Animals
It is my belief that we all have animal spirit guides that guide and support us along our life journey.
Each spirit animal represents a different aspect of life. Some show up when we need their particular energy or receive their symbolic message, while others show up consistently throughout our lifetime. These animals, birds, mammals, reptiles, and even fish, are like our personal totems.
I have three main spirit totems: the eagle, the red tail hawk, and the owl. Each has shown up consistently in my life, especially when there is a time of adversity, grief, or crisis occurring.
I was made of aware of these three totems early in my life, when I consulted with an indigenous elder. He gave me my spiritual name: Soaring Free. I instantly loved my name. It represents the proud eagle that soars on high, the red tail hawk that soars in broad circles high in the air, and the owl that is wise and roams free.
The Eagle
After my parents passed away, I was cleaning their house. Not only was I grieving at the time, I was also very distraught, having to decide whether to sell their home or not. I was not at all sure if it would be the right thing to do.
Then, I asked my angels to give me a sign. Moments later, as I looked down towards the lake, there were two beautiful bald eagles sitting on the edge of a tree branch.
The True Power Of Your Worst Nightmares
When I was 24 years old, I was a somewhat disempowered young lady who went to work for the city council. All the girls in the office had an active social life and a boyfriend, except me.
In fact, I was bullied for it and became a bit of a joke around the water cooler, to the extent that I could not properly concentrate on the task at hand and ultimately lost my job. Looking back, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. But, at the time, it did not feel like it.
About a year ago, I started to have a recurring dream that I was 24 again, and sharing an office with the same mean girls, supervised by the same misogynist boss. But this time I had a very different mindset.
In my dream, the boss had criticized my work. So, I pick up the documents he complained about to, walk up to his office, put it on his desk, and tell him politely to type his own letters in future. I was going home now, because I am no longer prepared to put up with his nonsense.
Well, if only I had the same courage back in the old days, I might have suffered far less emotional anguish! I felt really empowered in the dream, and it brought me the realization that I no longer have to suffer fools and that I need to stick up for myself more often. However, the dream also revealed to me that I still had not entirely made peace with the past, otherwise the dream would not be recurring.
The moral of the story is that dreams do not only reflect how we are doing in the present, and how far we have advanced in life, but also what we need to do to work on ourselves to be even better in the future. How powerful and life-enhancing is that!
Another compelling dream I have been having of late is of myself flying a light hovercraft over the estate where I lived as a child. I faced several challenging, traumatizing things growing up there, including poverty and domestic abuse. However, this liberating dream confirms that I have managed to rise above those childhood setbacks and obstacles, and I am now in control of my own life and destiny.
